The present disclosure pertains generally to electronic personal locating devices for determining the location or position of a pet, an object or a person, and more particularly, a device for determining the location or position of the object by utilizing the capabilities of two-way paging systems and global positioning satellite systems.
Tracking the location of an individual or an object or even an animal such as a domesticated animal or a pet that can move in unknown directions over a considerable range of territory has been a concern for a number of years. A number of systems have been proposed which employ existing wireless communication capabilities but which tend to be cumbersome, bulky, expensive or all of the above. With the advent of global positioning system (GPS) services, it has been possible to provide relatively inexpensive location systems for determining the location of a moving object. These have typically been utilized on trucks to provide location information for companies that have large fleets of trucks in use at any one particular time. The position of an individual truck is determined by coincident reception of signals from at least three GPS satellites by a satellite receiver, which position can then be stored or can be transmitted to a central receiving station via some sort of wireless link. Moreover, the wireless link can be a two-way communication link wherein the positioning information is only transmitted in response to receiving a request. However, the global positioning system (GPS) has some disadvantages in that it is relatively slow in acquiring the location data and it is strongly dependent upon the target object being in an open area where it is in a line of sight position relative to at least three GPS satellites. A further disadvantage, particularly in a small, portable unit, is that the GPS receiver that must be included in a locating device requires the use of substantial electrical energy during the period in which the location information is being acquired and developed from the GPS system. Further, a small portable object locator, in addition to minimizing the use of electrical power while being subject to less than ideal orientations to enable quick and efficient location by the GPS system, must also be very simple and easy to use.
The object locator described in the present disclosure and claimed herein comprises an apparatus and a method for locating or tracking an individual, an object or an animal having attached thereto an object locator operable to communicate with a base station location via a two-way paging system and further operable to acquire location information downloaded from a GPS system. A query for location information about the individual object or animal may be transmitted from the base station over the paging system to a paging receiver integrated with the object locator. Following the query, a signal enabling a GPS receiver in the object locator to acquire the location information for the position of the individual, object or animal from the GPS system is generated in the object locator. Thus enabled, the GPS receiver and the object locator receive the location information from the GPS system and store it in a memory in the object locator. The GPS receiver in the object locator may then be disabled to conserve power. The location information stored in the memory of the object locator, may then be loaded into a paging transmitter, also integrated with the object locator, and transmitted via the paging system to the base station. Upon receipt by the base station, the location information for the individual, the object or the animal may be output in some form that is readable or useful to a person at the base station or to a person who has access to the base station or to a person accessible to the base station.